Click Based Trading with Intuitive Grid Display of Market Depth

1. A computer readable medium having program code recorded thereon for execution on a computer having a graphical user interface and a user input device, the program code causing a machine to perform the following method steps: receiving market information for a commodity from an electronic exchange, the market information comprising an inside market with a current highest bid price and a current lowest ask price; receiving an input from a user that designates a default quantity to be used for a plurality of trade orders; dynamically displaying a first indicator in one of a plurality of locations in a bid display region, each location in the bid display region corresponding to a price level along a static price axis, the first indicator representing quantity associated with at least one order to buy the commodity at the current highest bid price; dynamically displaying a second indicator in one of a plurality of locations in an ask display region, each location in the ask display region corresponding to a price level along the static price axis, the second indicator representing quantity associated with at least one order to sell the commodity at the current lowest ask price; displaying the bid and ask display regions in relation to a plurality of price levels arranged along the static price axis such that when the inside market changes, the price levels along the static price axis do not change positions and at least one of the first and second indicators moves in the bid or ask display regions relative to the static price axis; displaying an order entry region aligned with the static price axis comprising a plurality of areas for receiving commands from the user input device to send trade orders, each area corresponding to a price level of the static price axis; and receiving a plurality of commands from a user, each command sending a trade order to the electronic exchange, each trade order having an order quantity based on the default quantity without the user designating the default quantity between commands, wherein each command results from selecting a particular area in the order entry region corresponding to a desired price level as part of a single action of the user input device with a pointer of the user input device positioned over the particular area to both set an order price parameter for the trade order based on the desired price level and send the trade order to the electronic exchange.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the trade orders comprise a combination of trade orders to buy and sell the commodity.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the order entry region further comprises: a bid order entry region comprising a plurality of areas for receiving commands to send trade orders to buy the commodity, each area corresponding to a price level along the static price axis; and an ask order entry region comprising a plurality of areas for receiving commands to send trade orders to sell the commodity, each area corresponding to a price level along the static price axis.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of commands from the user comprises a command sending a trade order to buy the commodity and a command sending a trade order to sell the commodity, and wherein each of the trade orders to buy and to sell have an order quantity based on the default quantity.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of commands from the user comprises commands sending at least two trade orders to buy.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of commands from the user comprises commands sending at least two trade orders to sell.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the bid order entry region, the ask order entry region, the bid display region, the ask display region, and the static price axis are all displayed in a single window on the graphical user interface.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7 , wherein within the single window, the bid order entry region overlaps with the bid display region, and the ask order entry region overlaps with the ask display region.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the overlapping of the bid order entry region with the bid display region allows the user to send trade orders to buy the commodity by positioning the pointer over the first indicator and selecting an area corresponding to the current highest bid price, and wherein the overlapping of the ask order entry region with the ask display region allows the user to send trade orders to sell the commodity by positioning the pointer over the second indicator and selecting an area corresponding to the current lowest ask price.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the single action of the user input device sets the desired price level based on the particular area and determines whether the trade order is a trade order to buy or to sell the commodity before sending the trade order to the electronic exchange.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the trade order is a buy order if the position of the pointer at the time of said single action is within a bid order entry region, and wherein the trade order is a sell order if the position of the pointer at the time of said single action is within an ask order entry region.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the single action of the user input device consists of a single click of the user input device.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the single action of the user input device consists of a double click of the user input device.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising program code causing the machine to perform the following method step: dynamically displaying an entered order indicator in association with the price levels arranged along the static price axis.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14 , further comprising program code causing the machine to perform the following method step: canceling the trade order in response to a subsequent single action of the user input device with the pointer of the user input device positioned over the entered order indicator.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising program code causing the machine to perform the following method step: receiving a re-centering command to center the inside market in a window of the graphical user interface.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the bid and ask display regions are displayed separately.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the bid and ask display regions and the order entry region comprise columns with a plurality of cells that are displayed as a grid such that the cells of each column are aligned.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising program code causing the machine to perform the following method step: displaying the price levels of the static price axis on the graphical user interface.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the first and second indicators go outside of a viewable portion of the static price axis due to changes in the inside market, and wherein the first and second indicators are placed back into view by receipt of a re-centering command.